


"Oh, you've found the Johnlock shippers, Sherlock."

by DarkSeth



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: AO3 1 Million, John is a Saint, Johnlock - Freeform, M/M, Sherlock is nosy, as usual, character reads fanfiction, for dealing with sherlock, why are we not surprised
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:37:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1190490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkSeth/pseuds/DarkSeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John knows about the Johnlock community especially AO3. Sherlock finds out about the fandom, but doesn't expect it to be as big as it is. John tells him that one site has just reached 1 million works of fanfiction, though not necessarily just about them. Speechless Sherlock.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Sherlock would never admit it, but he followed John's blog. Not as religiously as some people but sometimes, when he was getting bored he'd look it up. Contrary to his vocal remarks about it, he found it flattering. As he'd told John during their first case _“That's the frailty of genius: it needs an audience.”_

Looking back on it, maybe he shouldn't have read the comments, especially on the case where the two had to pose as a couple. But how was he to know about the group of people who liked to imagine them in a relationship?! Actually the term was "shipping" but he hadn’t known that term at the time.

Sherlock was in the living room, staving off the inevitable boredom by reading said blog post and comments when he ran across his first reference to the "fandom".  
"John, why does it seem like there is a dedicated following of teenage girls whose main job is to comment on how cute of a "couple" we make?"  
"What? Where do you see that?"  
"Your blog."  
"Oh." There is no surprise in John's voice. "You've found the Johnlock shippers."  
"The John-what what? I know you are capable of basic English. Please use it."  
"Well, to put it simply, Johnlock is a way to refer to us as a couple. John for me and lock as the last part of your name. "Shipping" is... uh, how do I explain it..."  
Sherlock is surprised. John seems to have knowledge of a subject that he doesn't know about. It is especially alarming as this subject deals with him. _And John,_ his brain added as an afterthought. "By the context, I assume "shipping" is being a fan of two people in a relationship?"  
"Yes! That's exactly what it is."  
"And how do you know about these terms. I'm assuming that very few know them."  
John's face got that cute little lost look that Sherlock adored. _Adored? Where did that come from. No, I do not adore John's face.  
_"Why do you think only a few would know that Sherlock?"  
"Really John. How popular do you think "shipping" is? I mean, what would they do other than post inane comments on blogs and such."  
John let out a small chuckle, "Sherlock, shipping is very popular. It happens in so many different fandoms-"  
"Is that another of those words? _Fandoms_?"  
"Yes, now let me continue. I myself ship Ten/Rose from Doctor Who."  
Sherlock harrumphs.  
John continues. "Yes I know. It's another stupid TV show. Still, fans don't just post comments, they write stories called fanfictions, draw fanart, cosplay as characters. It's quite impressive what they do."  
"And how popular is this "Johnlock"? It can't be common, this whole fan's doing things isn't that common !"  
"And this is where I prove you wrong, Sherlock. Greg, Molly, and I all ship Ten/Rose. I know Greg also ships a slash pairing, gay couple, from Doctor Who, but he won't tell us who, yet. But I’d venture a guess that it’s probably Ten/Master."  
"And what does that prove? Only that three people that I know ship one pairing doesn't mean that it's popular."  
"Fine. Here, take a look at this site. It's for posting fanfictions, fanart, and others things dealing with many different fandoms."  
"AO3? What does that mean?"  
"Archive of Our Own. Now look at the banner: Celebrate AO3 reaching one million fan-works. Now tell me fan-works and shipping isn't popular."  
Sherlock was speechless. How could he have foreseen this? "Ok, I concede to your point. But still, how popular is Johnlock?"

A small smirk appears on John's face. He types in "Johnlock" into the search bar and hits enter. "There, 27001 works in Sherlock Holmes/John Watson."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry its taken so long. As it is, I ended up adding another chapter and this one ended up being very short. Sorry, its not quite the update I'm assuming you guys were hoping for. But never fear! My muse is back and my writers block has fled! The next chapter will be up. I will not leave this unfinished.

The previous weeks revelation plagues Sherlock’s thoughts. How could he have missed this whole subculture? Research. He needs to do some research.

_‘AO3… too vague… Johnlock!... too much._   
_Sherlock Holmes/John Watson… interesting… OH, too graphic. Do people really draw things like that?...  
...Darkfic?..._   
_I am not a killer! Nor is John!’_

Sherlock slams the laptop shut. _The internet is full of idiots._

John looks up from inside the kitchen. “Sherlock, is everything ok?”  
“No.” Sherlock seems to have startled John. “No?-”  
Ah, he is waiting for an explanation. He never bothers to pay attention to, let alone follow social cues, but for John he will make the rare attempt. “There is a following who enjoy to imagine us as serial killers or criminals.”

The noise in the kitchen stops. The clink of a teacup being set on the counter precedes John’s footsteps into the living room. “Why were you looking up Johnlock darkfics?”  
“... Research”  
“Oh,” John seems to be at a loss. He turns to walk away , then pauses, “Why are you doing research on Johnlock?”  
Sherlock throws him a look as if saying _Do you really need to ask. Isn’t obvious?_  
“You’re getting that look again…”  
“What look?” “The one that says that we both know whats going on.”  
“Because we do.”  
“No, you do and I don’t which is why I find _the look_ so annoying.”  
Sherlock tilts his head to the side, an echo of the same conversation playing in his head. “Have you used that line before?”  
“Yes. And I’ll use it as many times as I’ll need to.”

Sherlock huffs in annoyment and tosses himself onto the sofa. John makes no move to acknowledge the detective, so Sherlock resolves himself to another boring evening.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short continuation. Sherlock gathers data, but hasn't found what he is looking for yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry with how long its been. I utterly forgot that I had this posted. School has calmed down for the next two months so I should be able to if not finish then definitely continue this fic.
> 
> Please ignore the blatant disregard of laptop battery life. I couldn’t be arsed to deal with that tangle of cords.
> 
> As always, this is not betaed, so I apologize for any mistakes.

John is out for the day, working a shift at the clinic, which leaves Sherlock alone, and bored. The genius’ eyes drift over to the unattended laptop, innocently blinking on the table.

John’s internet bookmarks are, in one word, enlightening. The sheer number of them are astonishing, and the variety- all the interests they represent. Sherlock needs to rethink the organization system in John’s room of Sherlock’s Mind Palace. There is a myriad of things, from news sites, cooking with few ingredients (likely for days when Sherlock’s experiments contaminated the fridge), and other medical and items of interest related to John. But there is one thing that is missing that is found on almost every male’s computer. Porn. _Maybe in one of the subfolders? No… Oh! there, something promising._

Sherlock chooses one of the bookmarks at random and is greeted with an innocent-looking page on AO3 showing results for the expected: “Sherlock Holmes/John Watson”. _Boring, where_ _are_ _the interesting ones?_ Another one yields similar results. Another, this time a profile for an author. _Boring. Lets_ _try_ _another. Not Johnlock this time… Doctor Who, even worse._ There seems to be no indications that John enjoys anything more… adventurous. Which is just plain wrong. John is not the kind of person to have few darker secrets. He is a red-blooded male who enjoys adrenaline rushes to the point where he invaded Afghanistan! So that begs the question of where the more _interesting_ things are.

Sherlock sets the laptop down and paces around the flat. He currently has a bunch of new data that he needs to file away before he could go about deducing where the elusive bookmarks were. Looking up at the time he realizes it is almost time for John to be home. For some inexplicable reason Sherlock doesn't want to let John know what he is doing so he rushes over to delete the evidence of his snooping.

* * *

 “Well, looks like you had quite the eventful day. Moved from the chair to the couch.”  
“Sarcasm really doesn’t suit you.”  
“Well, I am entitled to grouch after the shit day I had. I swear, if another mother brings her kid because they have the sniffles I might take a page out of your book and shoot the wall.”  
Sherlock snorts. John shoves Sherlock’s legs onto the floor and drops onto the sofa next to him. “So glad this week is over.”  
“Mm-h.” Sherlock mumbles in assent.  
John looks over, “Why would you be happy the week is over? You haven’t had a case and it doesn’t look like you have some sort of hazardous experiment to work on?”  
Sherlock pauses, “Oh, I have a small case I’m working on.”  
Startled, John looks up. “When did this happen?”  
“A few days ago.”  
Excited, John inquires of him, “So what’s it about.”  
“Nothing big I assure you. I’m taking care of it.”  
The doctor slumps. “Ok, fine.” He gets up, picks up his laptop and heads upstairs.  
Sherlock waits until he is sure John is asleep before he grabs his own computer to continue his research based off what he had seen on John's computer.

The next morning John comes downstairs and sees his detective asleep on the couch, his computer resting on his legs. He catches a glimpse of the opened web page and stills. _How did Sherlock_ _know_ _about that?_ He had made sure it wasn’t too obvious, so how on earth did Sherlock figure it out?

* * *

 Having an early shift at the clinic to get to, John abandons the flatmate and stolen computer, and heads out. 

Sherlock wakes up to the loud shutting of the front door. John just left for work. _Good._ The detective now has time to continue his exploration.

**Author's Note:**

> And yes, that number is the actual number of Sherlock Holmes/John Watson fics there were on the Archive at the time I wrote this. I realize now that that just means in general and could be from any source (ACD, RDJ movies, Basil Rathbone, etc,) but in that universe they are the first Sherlock/John and so there wouldn't be other thing to base it off of. You know what? Just ignore the previous sentence. It's called artistic license. The staple of writers and artists everywhere (especially fanfiction writers and artists).
> 
> I hoped to finish this completely in one day, but I ran out of time so the rest will be posted a little later. Expect some smut and Sherlock's complete loss at how to deal with the revelation that there are stories of him and John shagging.


End file.
